Listening to Ancients in Zimbabwe and Finding a Prehistoric Fable

Coming up with the right story for a new musical is notoriously difficult. Yet the measures that Chris Berry took to get the narrative for “The Legend of Yauna” still count as extreme. Mr. Berry, a musician of European descent, has said that the tale came to him in Zimbabwe, through a spiritual medium, from people who lived 12,000 years ago.

The fable sounds familiar enough to be believably prehistoric, even if parts jibe suspiciously with contemporary sensibilities. Trying to reunite with his wife and children, a man named Yauna goes on a quest through mythical lands (Mr. Berry’s website, banukuma.org, explains a whole cosmology) and endures various trials. The lessons he learns are admirable: Forgive; make love, not war.

After “The Legend of Yauna” debuted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Fishman Space on Friday, its director and choreographer, Maija Garcia, described it as a workshop performance. There had been many technical difficulties, but the problems went deeper than that. The fable, being a fable, is predictable, but it’s also rough with holes and contrivances. Ms. Garcia’s direction, though clear, doesn’t sustain much momentum.

Mr. Berry’s score gives some help. A large band of musicians plays drums and other African instruments and also takes on roles. The music, drawing from several African traditions, is generic and lulling, but the moments when the drumming grows intense or voices open up in simple harmonies are the best moments in the show.

As characters act and dance the story, Jason B. Lucas narrates it. His warm baritone is appealing, and the decision to keep most of the characters mutely miming emphasizes the storytelling. Yet the awkward way the miming is done is indicative of how the intentionally naïve in “The Legend of Yauna” keeps tipping over into the unintentionally amateurish.

Benjamin Sands, who plays Yauna, is a drummer with one facial expression: pensive. The offstage voice of Marie Daulne, better known as Zap Mama, is arresting, yet when she finally appears as the feared Black Panther Queen, it’s a letdown. Of the major characters, only Laurie M. Taylor as the foul-smelling witch Gurthusula shows some sass and life.

Much of that vitality comes through her dancing. Ms. Garcia’s choreography, like Mr. Berry’s score, adequately draws upon African traditions, but without much imagination. Not original enough to be poetically sophisticated, it’s not colorful enough to be fabulistic, either. Still, some of dancing excites in flashes. Jerijah West, throughout and as a fox-man, is a standout. Playing Yauna’s youngest daughter, the 8-year-old Indigo Hubbard-Salk dances her part of the possibly ancient story most convincingly of all.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C8 of the New York edition with the headline: Listening to Ancients in Zimbabwe and Finding a Prehistoric Fable. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Sign up for the Theater Update Newsletter

Every week, stay on top of the top-grossing Broadway shows, recent reviews, Critics’ Picks and more.